KVR Audio

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 1:08 pm

Is it just me, or is the news section just plain empty?

I mean, the Musikmesse 2011 is running for a while now in Frankfurt (Main), Germany. And the only "announcement" in terms of VST stuff is... HALion 4 from Steinberg?

Granted, KVR is not hardware based, but... come on!
Does everything happen at NAMM nowadays only and not at Musikmesse anymore?!

Seriously, all the good stuff is announced in Anaheim, not Frankfurt anymore. And for this I should shell out 30bucks as visitor?! For something that I got to see through several websources in January ALREADY?!

It's as if the German music market (which holds it's fair share, you have to admit that) is just... gone. All and mighty USA music realm. Poof.

I think it's good that I haven't spent money this year either. Seems like I didn't miss anything at all.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 1:20 pm

Compyfox wrote:It's as if the German music market (which holds it's fair share, you have to admit that) is just... gone. All and mighty USA music realm. Poof.

...or perhaps the majority of plugins come from small and independent developers who dont spend their customer's money on attending big shows....

how freaky would that be.

trimph1 · Post by **trimph1** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 1:24 pm

Don't see too much coming out of other sources either, so...

Gamma-UT · Post by **Gamma-UT** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 1:36 pm

Compyfox wrote:Is it just me, or is the news section just plain empty?

I mean, the Musikmesse 2011 is running for a while now in Frankfurt (Main), Germany. And the only "announcement" in terms of VST stuff is... HALion 4 from Steinberg?

Granted, KVR is not hardware based, but... come on!
Does everything happen at NAMM nowadays only and not at Musikmesse anymore?!

It may have escaped your attention but the 'news' section of KVR is just warmed-over press releases and there is sometimes a significant lag on when they make it to the site. Just typing 'musikmesse' into Google News (c'mon, how hard is that?) reveals quite a lot of launches...

Compyfox wrote:Seriously, all the good stuff is announced in Anaheim, not Frankfurt anymore. And for this I should shell out 30bucks as visitor?! For something that I got to see through several websources in January ALREADY?!

It's as if the German music market (which holds it's fair share, you have to admit that) is just... gone. All and mighty USA music realm. Poof.

...most of which are indeed hardware and which have a stronger bias toward performing musicians than studio users. Maybe it's just not a good show for you.

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:07 pm

Actually, never was the last times I attended.
NI vanished, the DJs scared off the good software developers, prices for booths were way too high, Apple scared off the PC crowd years ago...

Hardware wise, great... also the stuff that was announced at NAMM-ish. Not much new after all.

Guess KVR, rekkerg and MusicCafe are the only real good sources in that section after all. And... Sonic State for NAMM.

Kinda expected a reveal of Battery 4, Stylus RMX2, Kurzweil finally going VSTi, SoundToys Juice, the new SoundToys MultiComp (oh wait, that was announced at NAMM2011 for May), etc.

So all we see is a new UAD creation, Halion 4, Steinberg with "Cubase Elements" and IKM lowering prices on their guitar/bass amps.

Guess the show is really nothing for me after all anymore.

mcnoone · Post by **mcnoone** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 3:22 pm

Compyfox wrote:Apple scared off the PC crowd years ago...

Why this?
How does a computer company "scare off" people?

Gamma-UT · Post by **Gamma-UT** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 3:25 pm

Compyfox wrote:Actually, never was the last times I attended.

...

Compyfox wrote:Guess the show is really nothing for me after all anymore.

I imagine the organisers will be heartbroken.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 3:26 pm

mcnoone wrote:
Compyfox wrote:Apple scared off the PC crowd years ago...
Why this?
How does a computer company "scare off" people?

it runs up behind them in a mask and yells 'boo' in their ear.

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 3:59 pm

http://www.sonicstate.com/news/

tom27 · Post by **tom27** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 4:27 pm

Gamma-UT wrote: I imagine the organisers will be heartbroken.

Well, the point is that the organizers have probably made their share of money, while it's not so sure for the exhibitors.

Our company has stopped participating at fairs quite a while ago, but even today, the organizers try to convince us every year, giving wild figures and the feeling that if we don't participate, we will lose big business.

However, reality is: Most of the time, you see loads of free space everywhere and if you happen to be around such an area, nobody is going to visit your booth. Then, everyone is giving away tickets for free (sometimes in large quantities) just to ensure that they can market a particular fair as being a big success.

Unfortunately, nobody seems to understand, that prices for the booths are way too high, given the outcome for smaller companies. It's sure nice to be there and being seen, having a chat with customers etc., but in real life, the booth cannot be paid that way. You need to write orders, but if your visitors are either already customers (won't buy but say "hello") or people who have received a free ticket and are just looking around, you run into trouble soon.

One of the last fairs I was personally attending did give us and the booths around us just a handful of visitors in 2 days (one of our colleagues who happend to be placed in an "empty area" had 0 visitors!). Now imagine all the surrounding costs and... there you go.

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 12:38 am

mcnoone wrote: Why this?
How does a computer company "scare off" people?

I remember one year where in the studio hall was a big Apple Booth (bigger than NI and Steinberg had together). While I technically don't have anything against Apple (it's just not my kind of computer!), their advertising was... agressive to say the least.

They stocked all booths in the studio section (and some surrounding this hall) with Mac's - there was NO PC whatsoever. They contacted everyone that was even close to their booth "come, participate, get a Mac, win an iPod", and the only thing they actually showed around was the MacMini and the recent released iPad.

Good way to impress people. This probably caused a lot of negative critism towards Apple as well, because the year after they simply vanished, and the PC deveopers were back. But...

At the same time, the "DJ section" blasted the ears of the studo users and scared "them" off. Then (another fair): Native Instruments vanished, several other large developers as well, others basically presented their stuff from "half a year ago" only, the DJs battled the "Piano Players" one floor below - joy. Also the engineering academies, that usually had a booth, vanished. Something I was actually looking forward to, to meet colluegues.

The recent years, half of the studio section was empty. At least they stocked up on seats as some sort of lounge (ask Urs Heckmann, his booth was close to that area in that year). But this wasn't a fair anymore.

I spoke with the CEO of the NAMM at his Musikmesse booth that year, and he was like "our house is overrun, it turned down here". And seeing pictures of NAMM, I can totally imagine that. Heck, some devs in those years said me strait into the face "Musikmesse isn't worth to us anymore, we rather go to NAMM" (NI, Germany's biggest software firm said that!)

I can also still remember the rules being strict - only the last day of the fair being open to "public" visitors. The last times I was there, I saw school classes (even one with primary-school pupils!), tons of families, etc. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, I then find the different prices (students, professional visitors, "public" visitors) unadjusted.

Also... prices rose about 2 Euro per year for the ticket! The fair didn't expand however, it slimmed down instead in terms of exhibitioners. And paying more for shows running at late evening, which you can't participate, since you only have a train ticket for like 8pm (2 hours after the exhibit closed) - well... great.

So, no Gamma-UT the Organizers will not be heartbroken. At least not partially. They tried to apologize to me (though I still wait for their T-Shirt that they wanted to send out for free back in 2008 after I gave some constructive critism) - but it seems like nothing much changed. It's business after all. And a hard one at that.

I can definitely releate to tom27's story. I know similar problems from comic events and conventions in general where I was either a technitian or a temp at one of the booths.

Sonic State or not... it's still a bit dissapointing compared to NAMM. But I don't have the funds to go there. Neither for the flight, nor for the tickets (and the rules are more strict here).

ALAS! Does anybody hear anything from the british music fair that is in early Summer as well? Not really, right?

tapper mike · Post by **tapper mike** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 2:27 am

RE NAMM
Welcome to the club. I've always wanted to go and never have.

We have this local guitar show in Detroit. It used to be a collectors heaven. Dealers of collectable insruments would come from all over the world and you could get amazing deals on classic instruments. It also was a great chance to meet celebrities.

First the Japanese then the bargain basement. In the 80's japanese investors showed up paying top dollar for guitars that would be locked in a vault. Great for them great for markup good for sellers. Lousy for casual collectors like myself. Prices went thru the roof for collectables and soon dealers were dealing directly with investors no need for a show. Next the bargain basement hunters came and it spawned cheap wars (this was before the internet) Poor slobs who would never no the difference showed up in droves looking for a $100 guitar. That drove off all the botique crowd of buyers and sellers..

Getting back to Musikmesse 2011
Can fender not have one original idea for a guitar in 20 years? Now they are peddling knock offs of knock offs that were lousy back then which is why they evaporated. I'm speaking of the new pawn shop line.
http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ ... res-418349

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 12:39 pm

Oh... yeah Fender... I always went to Musikmesse the second day it actually opened. Every time I walked by the Fender booth, all guitars were sold already!

Seriously?

And what about the "Hello Kitty" collection? Yeah, slap me over the face, but my lady would have loved to get that guitar, and I would have loved to get that one bass. Heck even my brother-in-law would have gone for it - and he's more of the "metal fan" type both in looks and taste of genre.

*cough*

Where was I?

Oh... Well, I never went there (Frankfurt) to buy anything "directly" from the fair. I always saw the trade show as... well... show. See what's new and get it later, maybe connect with new people to start future deals, etc. Half of the stuff wasn't available for purchase anyway. Unless I did something wrong and was just not sassy enough.

And now... due to KVR/rekkerd/MusicCafe/GearSluts... you know most of these people already. Only missing are regular meetups in nearby large towns or something.

Then again, there's stuff like the MusicianNetwork that is taking care of that as well.

So... looking at (music) trade shows, especially here in Europe, what's left?

Even the Popkomm is moot - last year they closed it "early" due to "noise complaints" - yeah right, after they moved to the "Tempelhof Airport" field, and the year before they didn't even open doors due to "mass illegal (song) sharing issues".

So far the only conventions that really seem to be interesting might be the AES one (but you have to be a member, and rules are strict as well - not to mention that they're moving every year) and the SAE Alumni Convention here in Berlin in Autumn.

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 1:08 pm

this was the first messe in years that was packed with people. we went two days and it was crowded. it was full of exhibitors, there weren't covered up areas that were empty.

there were less exhibitors i knew, but there were a lot of fresh people. expertsleepers were there, with whom i had a booth 8 years ago. the new schmidt synth was a looker, korg had their ipad stuff and monotribe which i liked.

we ran into linplug, cableguys, sonic charge, sugar-bytes, arts accoustic, snap, anthony rother and god knows who (i fried my brain later that night). and of course there were my friends from access, waldorf and celemony (latter without a booth too)

all in all i think i'm going back to it with my own booth. it's just too much fun not to go (especially when winning the mipa award, but that's not mandatory)

cheers,

urs

MrMagneto · Post by **MrMagneto** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 6:29 pm

Just came back from Frankfurt.
It was quite a musik-mess(e). Very crowded, lots of interresting things.
No real chance to test anything though - loudness war on another level.

I had headache after 2 hours. DJ's, artists and kids who used the instruments as a public casting stage made an unforgetteble noise. There were restrictions (70dB) but nobody cared lol

Musikmesse 2011 - Dissapointing once more?